Ray Bradbury's 1957 book Dandelion Wine is a tale of small town Midwestern America through the eyes of a 12-year old boy. I picked it up after re-reading the more well-known Something Wicked This Way Comes, which comes after Dandelion Wine in the trilogy.

Yesterday, I read through the chapter on the 'Happiness Machine' that Leo Auffmann sets out to make. The idea hits him like a bolt of lightning, and he becomes obsessed on creating a machine that will bring people happiness. Interestingly, his wife (and others) don't see the need for such a device. After a frightening encounter with one of their children and the machine, Leo's wife Lena wants to try it out. Leo and the children hear her crying from outside the machine. Puzzled by the experience, here is Leo and Lena's conversation when she comes out:

“Oh, it's the saddest thing in the world!” she wailed. “I feel awful, terrible.” She climbed out through the door “First, there was Paris...”
“What's wrong with Paris?”
“I never even thought of being in Paris in my life. But now you got me thinking: Paris! So suddenly I want to be in Paris and I know I'm not!”
“It's almost as good, this machine.”
“No. Sitting in there, I knew. I thought, it's not real!”
“Stop crying, Mama.”
She looked at him with great dark wet eyes. “You had me dancing. We haven't danced in twenty years.”
“I'll take you dancing tomorrow night!”
“No, no! It's not important, it shouldn't be important. But your machine says it's important! So I believe! It'll be all right, Leo, after I cry some more.”
“What else?”
“What else? The machine says,'You're young.' I'm not. It lies, that Sadness Machine!”
“Sad in what way?”
His wife was quieter now. “Leo, the mistake you made is you forgot some hour, some day, we all got to climb out of that thing and go back to dirty dishes and the beds not made. While you're in that thing, sure, a sunset lasts forever almost, the air smells good, the temperature is fine. All the things you want to last, last. But outside, the children wait on lunch, the clothes need buttons. And then let's be frank, Leo, how long can you look at a sunset? Who wants a sunset to last? Who wants perfect temperature? Who wants air smelling good always? So after awhile, who would notice? Better, for a minute or two, a sunset. After that, let's have something else. People are like that, Leo. How could you forget?”
“Did I?”
“Sunsets we always liked because they only happen once and go away.”
“But Lena, that's sad.”
“No, if the sunset stayed and we got bored, that would be a real sadness. So two things you did you should never have. You made quick things go slow and stay around. You brought things faraway to our backyard where they don't belong, where they just tell you, 'No, you'll never travel, Lena Auffmann, Paris you'll never see! Rome you'll never visit.' But I always knew that, so why tell me?”

While reading this, I couldn't help but think, 'Bradbury prophesied smart phones and social media perfectly!' Lena's experience is the same as legions of others who report dissatisfaction and sadness with their own lives after being drawn in to the fake world of social media. The most poignant observation is, “It's not important, it shouldn't be important. But your machine says it's important! So I believe!”

Online (we don't see the term 'virtual reality' used often any longer) the relationships there aren't real. The experiences aren't real. The only thing seemingly real is the disappointment people face when they look at the reality of their lives against the false creations of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and the like. While not as dystopian as Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury saw the bleak future that awaited humanity as we traded the real for the imaginary. He was a genius.

In the remainder of the chapter, the Happiness Machine bursts into flame, destroying itself and the Auffmann's garage. In the aftermath, Leo sits on his front porch looking in to his family going out their ordinary, day-to-day lives and has the epiphany, “There it is...the Happiness Machine.”

Brilliant. Thank you, Mr. Bradbury.

#Bradbury #culture #life #reading

God assumed from the beginning that the wise of the world would view Christians as fools…and he has not been disappointed...Have the courage to have your wisdom regarded as stupidity. Be fools for Christ. And have the courage to suffer the contempt of the sophisticated world.

— Antonin Scalia

#culture #quotes

The failure to read good books both enfeebles the vision and strengthens our most fatal tendency – the belief that the here and now is all there is.

— Allan Bloom (h/t: Cultural Offering)

#culture #life #quotes #reading

It can be exalting to belong to a church that is five hundred years behind the times and sublimely indifferent to fashion; it is mortifying to belong to a church that is five minutes behind the times, huffing and puffing to catch up.

— Joe Sobran (quoted here)

Your church either has a stage or an altar. One glories God, one glorifies whoever is on stage. Choose wisely.

— (quoted here)

#culture #quotes #theology #worship

Non-Christians seem to think that the Incarnation implies some particular merit or excellence in humanity. But of course it implies just the reverse: a particular demerit and depravity. No creature that deserved Redemption would need to be redeemed. They that are whole need not the physician. Christ died for men precisely because men are not worth dying for; to make them worth it.

— C.S. Lewis, The World's Last Night, chapter 6

#culture #quotes #theology

Immediately after the death of Charlie Kirk, many on the political left celebrated and mocked his death as getting what he deserved, while many on the right called for retribution in the form of violence. There were not calls from either side to stand down. There was not even agreement that his assassination was a tragedy worthy of lament and mourning. People on both sides of the political spectrum were stoking the sparks of dissent into anger.

Immediately after the death of Renee Good, many on the political right celebrated and mocked her death as getting what she deserved, while many on the left called for retribution in the form of violence. There were not calls from either side to stand down. There was not even agreement on what just happened. People on both sides of the political spectrum were fanning the flames of anger into rage.

Clearly, this event is BY NO MEANS THE MORAL EQUIVALENT of Charlie Kirk's assassination. It is potentially far worse. It is potentially far less serious. If it turns out that Good was gunned down by an overzealous law enforcement agent of the state, it is far worse than Kirk's assassination by a private citizen. It if turns out that the use of deadly force against Good was justified by law enforcement, her death is still tragic, but it is nowhere near morally comparable to Kirk's.

Here's the thing...we do NOT know which one of the above evaluations is correct. That judgment does not come in an instant from social media, talking heads on cable news, or politicians. That judgment comes as the result of a deliberate, impartial investigation by individuals qualified to do it. So far, that has not happened.

Here's what we do know...both sides of the political spectrum have abdicated their moral authority by cheering either death and should be soundly rebuked. Both sides are wrong to celebrate the death of either of these individuals, regardless of motivation. Both sides are being irresponsible and are part of the ever-growing cancer of division that has metastasized through these United States. Though there are clearly times when violence is necessary and right, anyone celebrating and glorifying death (regardless of cause) is acting as a lackey of Satan, willingly or unwillingly, and is directly contributing to the destruction and collapse of our nation.

It is time to stand down. It is time to mourn the destruction of lives, the destruction of the ability to debate and disagree, the destruction of civility, and the inevitable destruction of our nation that will come as a result of the normalization and celebration of political violence. Stand down. Everyone.

Better yet, time to fall down on our knees and pray...that is the only way out.

Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.

#culture #politics #theology

Yesterday's post about 'online worship' was not intended to simply be a rant—though I admittedly want us to keep that in mind—nor does it allow us to become smug because 'we worship in person.'

On the contrary, those of us blessed enough to be able-bodied have the additional privilege (and bear the additional burden) of bringing the fellowship of the body of Christ to those who are unable to participate in the corporate life of the church. We must take Jesus' words from Matthew 25.31ff. and St. James' words very seriously, “Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble...” (James 1.27). We should add to the list of those we must visit the infirm, the sick, the home bound, etc.

We tend to think 'online worship' gets everyone 'off the hook' by allowing folks to 'worship' from their couch and allowing us to forget them. On the contrary, given the fantasy of 'online worship,' we must encourage those able to join us to actually do so and visit those unable to join us to encourage them in their faith during their time of solitude and isolation.

I confess, I am as guilty as most of neglecting the latter.

#culture #quotes #theology

It's no secret that I believe 'online worship' is a fictional construct. You can listen to a sermon. You can watch people sing. You can even watch people take the sacrament. But you're not engaging in corporate worship. You're not part of a community.

Speaking about engagement in politics, not religion, Mark Granza has reached the same conclusion, though much more astutely than I:

People are no longer present in physical space—they essentially transitioned online. Think of how many people believe they belong to a “community,” regularly hosting podcast discussions as if there are a thousand people in front of them, but really, they’re alone in their living room...If you’re alone in your living room, it doesn’t matter how many people you’re “connecting” to. Truth is, you’re alone.

(source)

#culture #quotes #theology

Several church members have asked my opinion on Halloween, the history behind All Hallows Eve, and whether or not Halloween activities are appropriate for Christians to participate in...here is a rather long-winded response that I've shared with several that I'm sharing here with hopes others may find it helpful.

Shortly after Christianity was legalized in the West (313 AD), Christians began to honor those believers who died in the faith. It was both a celebration of the number of martyrs who died for the faith during the Roman persecutions (late 200's, early 300's) as well as a time to remember those whom we know who died in the faith in the last year. This feast is what we today call All Saints Day, called in older times All Hallows Day (hallow, of course, coming from holy, as in the Lord's Prayer).

Early on, All Saints was celebrated on May 13th, but during the short time of Pope Gregory III (730's), he moved the day to November 1st to align with the foundation of a new chapel in St. Peter's (the Vatican) dedicated to all the saints/believers in heaven. As with most church feasts, we added the night before to the celebration, adding All Hallows Eve on October 31st (similar to Christmas Eve on December 24th and Holy Saturday before Easter) and All Souls Day (in some places) on November 2nd.

The term Halloween is a contraction of Hallows Evening: Hallow + E'en = Halloween.

Christians used to be much more open and honest about the reality of death than we are in our sterile, antiseptic 21st century American culture. After all, they were surrounded by death all the time, up front and personally. Taken together, these three days became a time to remember the reality of death and to celebrate Christ's victory over death for all who lived and died in faith. There was nothing grotesque or morbid about it. Life and death happened every day and were not anything unusual. If anything, our distance from death is what makes many recoil at a Church holy day remembering the faithful departed.

As far as I can tell, the tradition of dressing up on Halloween started sometime around the Reformation. Ghoulish costumes (by no means scary or gory by today's standards) were a visible reminder that death will one day take us all. Martin Luther is said to have encouraged ridiculous representations of Satan and demons because of his belief that the thing Satan hated most was being made fun of and mocked (his sin, after all was pride, and the proud hate being ridiculed). Jack-o-lanterns evolved to pumpkins from the Irish tradition of carving turnips (lame, ha ha). Trick-or-treating presumably came from an English tradition of going door to door asking for 'soul cakes' with the promise to pray for the departed family members of the givers.

I've read from anti-Halloween sources that the church took the pagan, Celtic holiday of Samhain and baptized it to make a church holiday; however, this has a few problems. There's no evidence that this Celtic holiday was known in Rome when the Pope moved All Saints Day to November. It appears to be a very localized observation, and the Pope specifically moved it around a church dedication. There also doesn't seem to be anyone making a connection between the two until about the time of the Reformation (honestly, as a die hard Protestant, it was probably propaganda from the Reformers trying to link paganism and anti-Christian practices with the Roman Catholic Church).

I think it's safe to say that Halloween has very strong Christian roots, and we should do a much better job teaching our own Christian history. I'd love to see Christians reclaim the original celebration for what it is...we need to do the same with Christmas, too! With that in mind, however, there is no denying that Halloween has been hijacked by secular and demonic influences and twisted into something that would be unrecognizable to our ancestors. More importantly, there are those today who definitely take it much too far into the realm of the dark and demonic...and we should by no means participate in that. All that to say, yes, I think we can celebrate Halloween, but we need to be discerning about how we do so. There's certainly much more danger in the demonic influences around Halloween than a Christ-less, secular Christmas. But just because things are abused doesn't mean we should throw them out. We should restore them. They are an important part of the faith.

#culture #festivals #theology

Why does the truth now lead to hatred, causing people to become enemies of those who share it? A happy life is cherished, and that happiness comes from embracing the truth. Perhaps it's because people love the truth only when it aligns with what they already cherish. They want to believe they are right and resist being shown otherwise. This is why they hate the truth—it threatens what they love more than the truth itself. They appreciate the truth when it enlightens them but despise it when it points out their faults. They want to avoid being deceived, yet they often deceive themselves. They love the truth when it reveals something positive, but they hate it when it exposes their flaws.

— St. Augustine, Confessions, Book X, Chapter XXIII

#culture #quotes #theology